**DEADLINE FOR ORIGINAL COSPONSORS IS NOON ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14**

Dear Colleague:

Honey bees and native bees jointly provide U.S. agriculture an estimated $18 to $27 billion in pollination service annually. One of every three bites of food we eat is from a crop pollinated by bees. Unfortunately, these crops are threatened by the dramatic
decline of pollinator populations throughout the country.

Over the past decade, documented incidents of honey bee colony collapse disorder and other forms of excess bee mortality have been at a record high, with some beekeepers repeatedly losing 100 percent of their operations. Thousands of scientific studies have
implicated neonicotinoids, or neonics, as key contributors to declining pollinator populations.

Join us as we reintroduce the Saving America’s Pollinators Act of 2018 to raise awareness of this important issue and to save our pollinators. Our legislation suspends the use of certain neonicotinoids until the EPA completes a thorough
assessment and ensures that any uses do not cause an unreasonable and adverse effect on pollinators.

We hope that you will join us in acting now to adequately protect our future food supply and our agricultural and ecological health before it’s too late. The original cosponsor deadline is noon, Wednesday, February 14. To be an original co-sponsor this legislation
please contact Kevin Stockert in Rep. Blumenauer’s office at
Kevin.Stockert@mail.house.gov or Mike Cusher in Rep. McGovern’s office at
Mike.Cusher@mail.house.gov.